Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding his Department provides to the UK Health Security Agency to support that agency's future pandemic preparedness.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is the United Kingdom’s permanent standing capacity to prepare for, prevent and respond to threats to public health and pandemics. Pandemic preparedness is a core part of this mission in keeping the nation’s health secure.
To deliver its remit, UKHSA was allocated funding of c.£450 million in financial year 2022/23 for core activities, which included funding for critical capabilities that enable the UK to prepare for future pandemics, and investment in wider capabilities that will support a pandemic response, such as a dedicated Centre for Pandemic Preparedness function which brings together a network of expertise across Government, academia and the private sector. This network, supported by UKHSA’s core capabilities, helps provide high quality scientific evidence to enable the Government to identify, assess and mitigate the impact of future pandemics, and strong surveillance, genomics, and analysis capabilities, supported by laboratories, that enable us to detect, identify and monitor cases.
Other wider capabilities include scientific and clinical expertise that can analyse, classify, and provide advice on the health threat, and provide guidance on appropriate mitigations; and frontline response teams that provide outbreak response, supporting local authorities and other health bodies.